Piano



April 16, 1929. P. H. TAYLC)R 1,709,045

PIANO Filed May 25. 1925 2 Sheets-Sheet 1 2 Sheets-Sheet P. H. TAYLOR PIANO Filed May 23, 1925 April 16, 1929.

15kt? PaaZlZTa entree srarss smear orFics.

PAUL H. TAYLOR, OF WAKEFIELD, IViASS'ACI-IUSETTS; GEORGE M. POLAND ADMINIS- TRATUB OF SAID PAUL I-I. TAYLOR, DECEASED.

PIANO.

jl'pplicationfiled May 23, 1925. Serial No. 32,434.

his invention relates to pianos and particularly to the type known as grand piano, and aims to provide both an improved piano string plate and case therefor, having, among others, the novel features and advantages hereinafter pointed out.

In the drawings of the embodiment of my invention selected for illustration and description herein, r

Fig. 1 is a plan of the string plate and also of the case with the top removed to show the case in outline; r

Fig. 2, a side elevation of the case from the left, Fig. 1; v

Fig. 8, a side elevation from the right, 1 1g. 1, the molding and legs being shown 1n conventional form in each instance; 311K,

Fig. 1 is a vertical cross-section ot' the plate along the line 4 4, Fig. 6, passing through the index numerals 8 and 11; v

Fig. 5 is a vertical cross-section lengthwise of the plate on the line 55, Fig. 1, and passing through the numeral 13 and Fig. 6 is a partial plan of the plate and its strings showing the hammer line and hammers, the dampers being omitted for clearne ss and the plate beingbroken away each side of the hammer line.

Referring to Fig. 1 of the drawings, the string plate 1 there shown has the usual straight front edge 2, its right hand or treble edge 8 being straight or nearly straight and at approximately a right angle to the front edge throughout a portion of its length, and

slightly convex throughout the remaincer ot' its length, as distinguished from the conventional plate which is concave-convex in outline at its treble or right hand edge.

At its rear end the treble side edge 3 of the plate curves sharply rearwardly around toward the bass side of the plate to form the rear end or lobe 4 which is unsymmetrical or at one side of the plate, and in turn blends into a concave-convex side edge 5 sloping at the bass side over toward the latter edge, terminating in a short length of straight edge leading to the front edge 2 and meeting the same at substantially right angles thereto.

The plate 1 is provided with the usual front pin block shelf 6, a treble side web 7 extending to and partially around the rear end and expanding into a wider Web 8 on the bass ,ide, said web at various points being provided with openings 9 to lighten the construction, reduce the area to be finished and to increase to a maximum the area of unrestricted contact between the sounding board and the Extending in a broad sweep from near the rear end of the string plate, at the bass side of the lobe 4, forwardly and toward the treble side, is a curved rib 10, supported along concave side by the web 11, which, in turn, is connected. by the stress receiving web members 11 and 11 with the curved margin of the lobe 4, whereby is formed a truss construction, so to speak, resulting in an unusually sturdy structure capable of withstanding the stresses imposed upon 1t by the tens oning or the strings and requiring less reinforcement by ribs than under present practice. The curved rib 10 is further supported y the longitudinal ribs 12, 13 which extend from the front edge or the string plate rearward to the back edge oi the lobe l, intersecting and supporting the rib 10 where they cross. The longitudinal rib 18 shown extended in a direction generally at right angles to the front edge of the string plate, while the rib 12 is shown extended from the front edge of said string plate diagonally rearward toward the treble side of the plate and terminated in and at the back edge of the lobe 4-. As compared with the conventional string plate which requires tour substantially longitudinal strengthening ribs, my improved truss structure described, enables me to obtain the required strength by the use of fewer ribs My improved string plate is provided with the usual tuning pins 16, a part only of which are designated by the reference numerals in the front pin block web 6, said string plate being also provided in the lobe l: with the bass or lower scale hitch pins 1'? on the raised step 18, and with the treble upper scale hitch pins 19 on the web 11. The base bridge 20, and the treble bridge 21, rise ironi the sounding board beneath the lng plate and protrude through said string plate. Between the tuning pins 16 and the hitch pins 17 are secured the strings 22 of the bass scale, broken out for clearness, and between said tuning pins and the hitch pins 19 are secured the strings 28 of the treble scale, a portion of them also being shown broken out to promote clearness. It will be noted that the treble bridge 21 is substantially a continuous sweep or curve in outline and thus is much easier and less expensive to construct than if of concavo-conve-X outline like the treble bridges in common use.

It a well known fact that the large siz pianos possess certain inherentqualitics 0 tone due to the longer lengths of strin which are employed for the lower notes. l is a most important point in the design of a small piano to attain as nearly as possible this desirable tone quality in spite of the limited conditions imposed by the reduced size. For this reason attention is given to the placing of the string, or which compose the lower notes, in order that they may have as great a vibrating length as the design will admit.

It is well known that the lower the note, the longer must be the string of a given unit weightto produce the corr ct pitch. It is also well known to those Sli .led in the art that to obtain the correct pitch, with satisfactory tone cplality, in the lower or bass scale, single strings, if used, would require to be of such extreme length as would be pr0- hibitive within the limits of the ordinary piano plate. i rccordiugly resort customarily had to the expedient of winding said bass strings with one or more covering wires, the winding bci the best known substitute for increased length of the strings. The added Weight of the winding or covering wires makes up. in some degree, for the shortened length of the core string.

The practice of winding or covering the strings tends greatly to detract from the true tone quality oi the strings, and the covering wires take up so much additional room that it is licult to place them witain the necessarily limited available space, especially in the case of small grand. pianos which, at present, are by far the most popular sizes.

It becon'les extremely desirable, therefore, to increase the lengths oil the lower bass strin s to such an extent as will. obviate the necc in part, at least, for the heavy winding of such strings.

To that end I hare conceived the novel plan o'l reversing the outline of the conventional string plate, to throw the lobe from the leftor bass side to the right or treble side making the treble side edge strai ht. or nearly so, and pre'l erahly somewuat convex to.- ward the rear end, while the bass side is more or less concave as preferred, much as the treble side edge has heretofore commonly been .made. lly so doing, the treble of the rear end of the. plate ill be the longer, which permits the entire bass scale to be extended diagonally to the right and across the treble scale, into the area of the lobe 4 at the treble side of the instrument and so obtain a greatly increased length of the bass scale wires Without increasing the length of the plate. From my present tests, l have found that the best results are obtained it the di agonal lines of the bass strings; are approximately at or below an angle of 60 to the hammer line. This results in a greatly in creased string length between the usual agrali es 24: and bridge which is extremely desirable and produces an increased volume of tone and of superior quality for a string of given weight or character.

ln the drawings, Fig. 1, l have shown the strings as representative of the bass scale, and one will readily observe the increased length ol thcsc strings, as cc uparcd with the corresponding strings on the conventional plate, of the be scale. Upon my novel plate of ven mcasurenient tor the small size grand piano, I obtain. an increase in long? i of the lower bass strings oi about ten inches ver the corresponding strl on a conventional plate. in other words, i obtain on my novel plate in what ordinarily termed a baby grand piano, a length o1? stz-i hat can now be used only in a much larger rand piano.

in my novel plate, it is possible, see Fig. l, to position the bass or overstrung scale at a greater angle to the treble or undcrstrung scale than is possible in the con 'eutional plate, thus more evenly distributing; the strain over the conv rear end or lobe 4 of the plate with less strain on certain portions. 1 also prefer to string the treble scale some o hat diagonally to the rear and right, i. in the same general direction as the bass scale, but at a greatly reduced angle, as shown.

It is also well known that the larger the area oi sounding board made available for use and not covered by the plate, the greater is the active coustic ell'ecl', and it will be noted that Wl en using my improved plate, the uncovered area. of the usual sounding board 25 below it, and corresponding generally to it in outline and size, is much larger than is the area of the usual sounding board in use with the conventional form oi plate.

It is also recognized that the nearer to the center oi the free vibrating oortion ol the sounding board the acoustic bridges are positioned, the greater and more satishu'tory will be both the vilu'atiou of the board and the volume of sound given out thereby. and the purer the quality of tone, and it will be noted that in my improved cmislrucl'ion, lll. treble or upper scale bridge is more nearly positioned at the approximate center of the sounding board 25 than is possible in connection with the conventional board.

The hammer line 26 0:: the scales heroin shown as a right l ne must, tor the best results, be in a given position relative to the length of vibrant section of the scale and relative to tae tuning pins to which the ends of the wires are attached.

As the length of string is increased, the distance of the hammer line would ordinarih:

i in) iii be moved inward away from the plate edge. But the farther inward the hammer line is mo red, the longer must be the keys and, therefore, the heavier and slower the action. Hence the desirability of keeping the hammer line as near as practicable to the front of the plate. 7

By stringing the bass scale at a pronounced angle toward the rear treble side of the instrument, it becomes possible to retain the desired length of string between the tuning pins and the hammer line and at the same time retain the hammer line close enough to the front plate edge to keep the length of the F keys within desirable limits.

Heretofore grand and concert grand size pianos necessarily had long keys, while the small or baby grand sizes were supplied with the short keys for no other reason than that it was not necessary to use long ones. The improved piano plate described herein offers a satisfactory solution of what has heretofore been a serious di'lliculty. It is now possible by the use of my invention to use a short key 27 for the lowest bass note as well as the others, thereby obtaininga common hammer line, and still obtain string lengths corresponding to the grand and concert grand size.

It is also a well established principle of construction that to obtain the best results, Fig. 5, one of the two felts of the damper 27", or a portion of the one felt it one only is used, should strike the, string over the point where the hammer 27 strikes, and the other felt, or other portion of the felt, should strike the string in the rear of the spot where the hammer strikes in order that proper damping of the vibrations may be effected. Such a damper may be termed a full-fashioned or full size damper. In the conventional string plate supported by four ribs, the ribs take up so much room that, in connection with the acute angularity of the ribs, there is not left sufiicient room to use, in all cases, full size or full-fashioned dampers at the hammer line, those dampers adjacent the ribs being necessarily both shorter than usual and pushed forward of the hammer line so that, in some cases, the damper will not damp the string as it should. It will be noticed, Fig. i, that by my improved construction, I am able to use full size dampers 27 on all strings, each damper damping the string at the hammer line, and also in the rear thereof.

In the conventional plate in connection with the higher tone and shorter strings, the construction is so crowded that it has hitherto been impossible to use agratles for supporting these high pitch strings and it has been the practice to resort to the use of what is known as the inverted V-bar near the right hand end of the treble scale, below and against which the high pitch strings, have been stretched to take the places of the agratieswbichwere omitted. This \'-bar is a heavy and objectionable feature of con struction'and in my improved construction, ll am able to do away with this bar entirely and use agrafi'es or other devices throughout as indicated, these agralfes still leaving room for the hammers and dampers to function correctly. Furthermore, the additional room obtained between the bass strings on my novel plate, by virtue of the fact that windings for some of these strings in some cases are unnecessary, permits a reduction in the separation of the strings 22 constituting a unison, and thus makes possible the use of a narrower hammer.

Another advantageous feature is the reduction in the loading or weight of winding of the strings with consequent reduction in the amount of tension required to bring the string or unison up to pitch. This reduction in required tension results in a decrease of stress applied to the agrafles, tuning pins and pin'blocks.

It will be noted that in its general shape my novel plate, as here shown, corresponds very closely to the figure of a right triangle.

If the front edge of the plate be considered the base of the right triangle and the treble side of the plate as the perpendicular thereto, which it substantially is and should be, except in so far as it is only slightly modified for reasons of appearance of the exterior, then it will be found that in my plate the direction of the longest bass string is substantially identical in direction, if not in length, with the direct-ion of the hypothenuse of the above described right triangle; and, therefore, the base string which lies in the direction of the hypothenuse must be the longest string which can be strung on a given length of piano plate.

Or if a right triangle be erected on the hammer line as a base, with a perpendicular equal to the greatest distancevbetween the hammer line and rear end of the plate, then the hvpothenuse will substantially coincide with the longest base string.

Further if a right triangle be erected forward of the hammer line with a line corresponding to the lowest base string projected for a hypothenuse, and the hammer line extended to the left as a base, then the perpendicular fromthe base intercepting the hypothenuse will coincide with the key lengths, as the shortest distance between the two points.

The right hand or treble side 27 of my improved piano case is, as already stated, s ghtly curved through a portion of its length.

This is an advantage in that a curved surface does not show the blemishes or imperfections in the finish of the wood as distinctly as does a straight or fiat surface of the same length. Consequently less time and labor is required to finish the curved surface and any lit? remaining imperfections will be less noticeable. The left hand or base side 28, as shown, is partly concave-convex in outline torming withthe treble side a lobe 29 between them and with a straight section 30 extended to the straight edge 81, conforming generally to the shape of the plate.

My invention is not restricted to the particular embodimentthereof illustrated herein.

Claims:

1. In a piano provided with usual. keyboard, the combination with a string plate oi unsymmetrical. outline presenting a back lobe in the rear or. the treble scale side of the instrument, of a treble scale of wires 0ppo site the treble keys, and a bass scale of wires having its front end adjacent the bass keys and extended at a pronounced diagonal direction across the treble wire scale and having its back end in said lobe, whereby a greater length of bass strings is obtained in a piano of given depth from front to back with corresponding increase of bass volume.

2. in a piano having a usual keyboard, the combination with a string plate of unsymmetrical outline presenting a back lobe in the rear of the treble side 01 the instrument of a treble scale oi? wires opposite the treble keys and extendee rearward and slightly diagonally toward the t ble side oi": the lush rim-cut, and a bass scale having its front end adjacent the bass keys and. extended in a markedly diagonal direction across the treble scale to bring rear end within said lobe, whereby greater length of bass strings is obtained in a piano of given depth with corresponding increase of bass volume, and a hammer line which is a right line for both scales provided at a substantially uniform distance from the :tront ends of the keys.

8. In a piano, the combination with a able keyboard and string plate, 01" string se cured to said plate, hammers for said stringswith a right hammer line, and bass strings extended in a markedly diagonal direction from the keyboard, whereby to gain increased length of strings between the usual front points of attachment and the hammer line, and position the latter at a minimum and uniform distance from said keyboard -for both scales 4;. A piano plate having a lobe at the treble scale side, a treble scale and a bass scale for said plate, a bass scale brnjlge on the treble scale side oi? a longitudinal line through the plate midway between its two side or gas, and keys for said s-ales having a right hammer line.

5. A piano plate having bass scale strings and treble scale strings having a right hammer line, and full-fashioned dampers striking the strings at the hammer line and in the rear thereof.

6. A piano plate having a substantially straight front edge, a partially convex treble side edge, a concavo-convex bass side edge, and a lobe formed by and between said edges at the rear of the plate and a bass scale of wires of unusual length on the plate and extended angularly across it from the bass edge into the lobe.

7. A piano plate having a substantially straight front edge, a slightly convex edge, a concavo-convez; edge, all so related that it a right angle triangle were erected with its bass on the hammer line and with the perpendicular ot the triangle coinciding with the treble edge of the plate, the hypothenuse ol the triangle would be substantially adjacent to the concavo-convex edge oi. the plate, and bass and treble scales of wires on the plate so arranged as to permit the use of a right hammer line and white keys of substantially equal length.

8. A piano plate having a treble side edge comprising a straight section blending into a convex curved section and a concave-convex bass side edge, said edges forming bctwee them a lobe at the rear treble side corner of the plate and a bass scale with an extra long sa s string from the bass end of the front plate edge diagonally across to the lobe, and a treble and bass scale having a right hammer line.

9. A piano plate having a treble scale, and a bass scale, both having a right hammer line, the lowest string oi. the bass scale being so positioned on the plate that it will substantially coincide with the hypothenuse ot a right triangle whose base the hammer line and whose pi-irpendicular is the longest distance between the hammer-line and the rear end of the plate.

10. A piano plate having a treble scale, and a bass scale, both having a right hammer line the lowest string of the bass positioned on the plate that u tially coincide with the hypothr-nuse c t a ht triangle whose base is the hammer line and whose pcrpcndicular is a line drawn 'lrom the hammer line to the hitch pin of the lowest bass string. i

l. A piano case having a substantially straight front edge, a partially convex treble edge blending directly into a straight e edge, a concavowonvex bass side edge, u, a lobe form-ed by and between said edges the rear cl" lh case in combination with a ate ot a similar outline having a bass scale xjmded from the bass side edge into the 7 le bei ng so will substanlobe, and treble scale, both of which permit the use of a right hammer line.

A piano case having a substantially straight front edge, z. slightly convex edge a concave-convex edge, all so related that it a right angle triangle were inscribed within the margins of the case with its base on the hammer line and with the perpendicular of the triangle adjacent the treble edge of the case, the hypothenuse of the triangle would be substantially adjacent to the concave-convex edge of the case.

13. A piano plate having bass and treble scales thereon with a right hannner line, the lowest bass string 1 catcd substantially in the position of the hypothenuse of a right angle triangle, with respect to the front and treble side edges of the plate, by virtue of which location, the lowest bass string is the longest string which can be placed on a plate of any given length and width, and a treble scale having a right hannner line with the bass scale.

1 A piano plate having the straight front edge 31, convex treble edge 26, concave-convex bass edge 28, the lobe 29 between said can vex and concave-convex edges with a bass scale 22 thereon, the lowest string of which owing to the shape of the plate is of unusual length relative to the plate and extends to the rear end of the plate.

15. A piano plate having the straight front edge 31, convex treble edge 26, concavo-convex bass edge 28, the lobe 29 between said convex and concave-convex edges with the bass scale 22, treble scale 23 and white keys of uniform length.

16. A piano plate having a bass scale of ing's and a treble scale of strings with fulltashioneddampers striking the strings at'a common han r er line for both scales and white keys o't unitorin length for the scales.

In testinion whereof I have si ned n1 name this specification.

PAUL n. TAYLOR.

CERTIFICATE OF CORRECTION.

Patent No. 1,709,045. Granted April 16, 1929, m

PAUL H. TAYLOR.

it is hereby certified that error appears in the printed specification of they 4 above numbered patent requiring correction as fellows: Page 5, line 4, claim 12,

after the Word "case" and before the eeriod insert "iii combination with a plate of a similar outline having a bass scale extended into the lobe, and a treble scale, both of which have a right hammer line"; and that the said Letters Patent should be read with this correction therein that the same may conform to the record of the case in the Patent Office.

Signed and sealed this 21st day of May, A. D. 1929,

M. J. Moore, (Seal) Acting Commissioner of Patents.

CERTIFICATE OF CORRECTION.

Patent No. 1,709,045. Granted April 16, 1929, to

PAUL H. TAYLOR.

It is hereby certified that error appears in the printed specification of the.

' above numbered patent requiring correction as follows: Page 5, line 4, claim 12,

after the word "case" and before the period insert "in combination with a plate of a similar outline having a bass scale extended into the lobe, and a treble scale, both of which have a right hammer line"; and that the said Letters Patent should be read with this correction therein that the same may conform to the record of the case in the Patent Office.

Signed and sealed this 21st day of May, A. D. 1929.

M. J. Moore, (Seal) I Acting Commissioner of Patents. 

